The wars of an old-fashioned (neoliberal) gentleman

Fabiola Escárzaga

pp. 29-45

in: Juan E. De Castro, Nicholas Birns (eds), Vargas Llosa and Latin American politics, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010

Abstract

Beginning in the 1970s, the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa took up the titanic struggle of defending the neoliberal cause both in his native country and in the Hispanic world at large. He believes that his activity as a proponent of neoliberalism and his public interventions as a prestigious intellectual in its favor are necessary in order to sway public opinion to his cause. This belief springs from what he perceives as the absence— or ineptitude—of committed local politicians who ought to be fulfilling this mission and the indifference of international institutions that should have the capacity of intervening in a more active and coherent manner in national processes, in order to prevent Latin American countries from ending up at the mercy of corrupt and demagogical populist strongmen. Instead of analyzing the theoretical bases of Vargas Llosa's discourse, or their contradictory character, I will expose the systematic manner in which he has fulfilled his mission as an ideologue of neoliberalism.